Additives Bottle Cap

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an additive-infusing bottle cap. More specifically, the present invention relates to an additive-infusing bottle cap configured such that additives (functional substance) containing minerals, vitamins, and fruit flavors are provided inside a bottle cap so that when engaging the bottle cap with a container, the functional substance falls into the container and mixed with water. The additive-infusing bottle cap is configured with a thread portion provided on an inner surface of a body part to be screwed with a thread of a container and includes: a storage portion provided inside the body part and being movable while storing a functional substance therein; the functional substance filled in the storage portion; and a pressing portion provided in a space defined between the storage portion and the thread portion of the body part to press and tear the storage portion when engaging the bottle cap with the container.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0123198, filed Oct. 4, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an additive-infusing bottle cap. More specifically, the present invention relates to an additive-infusing bottle cap configured such that additives (hereinafter, referred to as functional substance) containing minerals, vitamins, and fruit flavors are provided inside a bottle cap so that when engaging the bottle cap with a container containing water (bottled water, carbonated water, barley tea), the functional substance falls into the container where the water is contained and mixed with the water.

Description of the Related Art

Although there are individual differences, humans need about 2,000 ml to 2,500 ml of water per day, and the amount of water is an amount that maintains the proper water balance for the body. In order to keep the body water balance as described above, it is desirable to consume as much water as that discharged from the body every day.

The water intake may be performed by directly consuming water or consuming processed beverages (carbonated beverages), or may be ingested through fruits and the like. In particular, water intake is recommended, but water (bottled water) is colorless and tasteless, which makes it harder to consume water compared with drinking processed flavored carbonated beverages. Accordingly, the amount of water intake is low.

Carbonated beverages are consumed more than bottled water and relieve temporary thirst, but contain salt, sugar, and caffeine, which cause the body to discharge water after intake and to feel thirsty even more.

Therefore, quenching thirst by drinking carbonated beverages will not only cause addiction to carbonated beverages, but also raise the level of sugars in the human body, causing problems that damage health. Despite this fact, many people fail to increase their intake of bottled water.

The reason is that bottled water is colorless and tasteless as described above. Thus, in case of drinking water more than the amount of water needed for quenching the thirst felt by the body, the body feels satiety. Accordingly, it is difficult to increase the intake of bottled water unless people are enticed to drink the bottled water intentionally.

Korean Utility Model Nos. 20-432245 and 20-434604 have been proposed in an effort to solve the problems. According to the utility models, flavorings are stored in the inner bottom of the bottle cap such that when separating the bottled water cap to drink water, the flavorings provided in the bottled water cap are mixed with the bottled water. Accordingly, when drinking the bottled water, the flavorings added to the bottled water entice people to drink a large amount of water while enjoying the bottled water as drinking a regular carbonated drink. As a result, it is possible to go on a diet and become healthy with sufficient water supply to the body by drinking the bottled water and to prevent diseases such as obesity caused by drinking carbonated drinks.

However, the conventional utility models are configured such that flavorings 200 are provided on the inside of a bottle cap 300 as illustrated in FIG. 1 and has a structure in which a film 100 is peeled off or pressed by hand to remove or shred the film 100. Accordingly, when peeling or pressing the film 100 by hand, the flavorings may be in contact with a user's hand and contaminated, or the inside of the cap may be in contact with the user's hand and contaminated. Thus, when shaking the bottled water to mix the flavorings and contents in a container, the contamination is transferred from the contaminated cap to water, which leads to drinking of contaminated water.

Documents of Related Art

(Patent Document 0001) Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-432245; and (Patent Document 0002) Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0434604.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and an objective of the present invention is to provide an additive-infusing bottle cap providing the convenience of selecting a bottle cap provided with various functional substances according to taste and drinking water with taste, the bottle cap being configured such that a functional substance is automatically mixed with water contained in a container by engagement of the container and the bottle cap, thereby preventing contamination and ensuring safety.

In order to achieve the above objective, there is provided an additive-infusing bottle cap being configured with a thread portion provided on an inner surface of a body part to be screwed with a thread provided in a neck of a container configured with an opening through which contents are discharged and introduced, the additive-infusing bottle cap including: a storage portion provided in a manner being inserted inside the body part and being movable while storing a certain amount of a functional substance therein; the functional substance provided as additives formed into any one of liquid and powder and containing minerals, vitamins, or fruit flavors, the functional substance being filled in a chamber of the storage portion; and a pressing portion provided in a space defined between the storage portion and the thread portion of the body part and functioning to press and tear the storage portion when engaging the bottle cap with the container.

The pressing portion may be provided with a piercing pin configured to tear the storage portion and integrally configured with connecting members being connected to an annular frame.

The pressing portion may include: a piercing pin provided at a central portion thereof to tear the storage portion; and a pressing plate provided with through-holes through which the functional substance passes, the pressing plate being configured such that a central portion thereof is formed into an inverse cone shape and is elastically transformed into a cone shape when pressed.

According to the present invention, an additive-infusing bottle cap is capable of providing the convenience of selecting a bottle cap provided with a functional substance according to a user's preference such as taste, flavor, color, etc., and drinking water with the preference. In addition, the bottle cap is configured such that the functional substance is automatically mixed with water contained in the container by engagement of the container and the bottle cap, thereby preventing contamination and ensuring safety. Furthermore, the bottle cap is easy for people of all ages to use.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features, and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a structure of a bottle cap capable of supplying additives according to the related art;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating a structure of a bottle cap according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a structure of a storage portion storing a functional substance therein which is the gist of the present invention and a structure of a pressing portion;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view illustrating an example of using the bottle cap of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view illustrating a bottle cap according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6A is a cross-sectional view illustrating a storage member according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6B is a bottom view of FIG. 6A; and

FIGS. 7A to 7C illustrate an example of using the storage member of FIGS. 6A and 6B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating a structure of a bottle cap according to an embodiment of the present invention. A bottle cap 1 according to the present invention is provided with a cap body 10. The cap body 10 is configured with a thread portion 11 provided on an inner surface of a body part 12 such that the cap body 10 is screwed with a thread formed in a neck of a container configured with an opening through which contents are discharged and introduced.

The bottle cap further includes: a storage portion 30 provided in a manner being inserted inside the body part 12 and being movable while storing a certain amount of a functional substance 20 therein; the functional substance 20 provided as additives formed into any one of liquid and powder and containing minerals, vitamins, and fruit flavors, the functional substance being filled in a chamber 33 of the storage portion 30; and a pressing portion provided in a space defined between the storage portion 30 and the thread portion 11 of the body part 12 and functioning to press and tear the storage portion 30 when engaging the bottle cap with the container.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the storage portion 30 includes the chamber 33 and a film 31 and is structured such that the chamber 33 in which the functional substance 20 is stored is provided in the inside thereof, and the film 31 closing the opening is formed with a cut line 32 to be easily torn. In the present invention, the shape of the cut line 32 formed on the film 31 is denoted by a cross shape for convenience of description. Alternatively, the cut line 32 may be selected from an I shape and O shape.

The pressing portion 40 is configured such that, when screwing the cap body 10 to the container, the container is moved along the thread by the engagement of the cap body 10 and the container, which makes a pressing plate 41 brought into contact with the opening of the container to be moved by a distance traveled. The central portion of the pressing plate 41 is provided with a piercing pin 42 to tear the film 31.

In addition, the piercing pin 42 is configured integrally with the pressing plate 41 by connecting members. A cross section of the connecting members is formed into any one of circular, triangular, or quadrangular shape. Through-holes 43 are defined between the connecting members and configured to be spaced apart from each other at regular intervals so that the functional substance 20 passes therethrough and is mixed with water in the container.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, when pressurizing the pressing plate 41 in a state where the central portion of the pressing portion 40 faces downward as an inverted cone, the central portion of the pressing plate 41 faces upward as a cone due to the elasticity thereof. Accordingly, the film 31 may be torn by the piercing pin 42 along the cut line 32 formed in the film 31.

More specifically, the pressing portion 40 is configured with piercing pin 42 in the central portion thereof to tear the storage portion 30. The pressing plate 41 is configured with the through-holes 43 defined at regular intervals through which the functional substance 20 passes. The pressing plate 41 is configured such that the central portion thereof is formed into the inverse cone shape and is elastically transformed into the cone shape when pressed.

The reason why the piercing pin 42 faces downward as described above is to prevent the storage portion 30 from being pierced and torn by the pressing portion 40 when combining the storage portion 30 and the pressing portion 40 with the cap body 10.

In addition, the reason is to ensure the convenience of changing the functional substance 20 according to taste when using the cap of the present invention by means of purchasing only the storage portion 30 filled with the functional substance 20 and mounting the storage portion 30 to the cap.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the pressing portion 40 may be configured with multiple piercing pins at regular intervals 42 to tear the storage portion 30 or may be configured such that a piercing pin is configured on the connecting member.

FIG. 6A is a cross-sectional view illustrating a storage member according to another embodiment of the present invention. The storage member 30 includes a chamber 33 and a film 31, and is structured such that a chamber 33 in which the functional substance 20 is stored is provided therein, and the film 31 closing an opening is formed with a cut line 32. The chamber may be structured such that one side thereof is wide and the other side is narrow and inclined. The cut line 32 may be formed into a broken line, and a connecting part 32 a may be configured as a portion not to be cut.

When engaging the bottle cap with the container in a rotating manner to fasten the bottle cap as illustrated in FIGS. 7A to 7C, the storage portion 30 of FIGS. 6A and 6B is pressurized by the container. Here, since the engagement of the container and the bottle cap is achieved by the thread structure, the pressure is also transmitted to the storage portion 30 in the form of a spiral. Accordingly, the storage portion 30 is changed from a trapezoidal shape to a rectangular shape so that the storage portion is sequentially cut little by little in accordance with the rotation direction along the cut line 32 formed into the broken line. Then, the storage portion 30 is stopped being cut due to the connecting part 32 a and thus the film 31 remains attached to the storage portion 30. It is preferable that the broken line is formed in an angle ranging from 270 degrees to 300 degrees.

The present invention described above is to provide the additive-infusing bottle cap capable of providing convenience of selecting a bottle cap provided with a functional substance according to a user's preference such as taste, flavor, color, etc., and drinking water with the preference. In addition, the present invention is to provide the bottle cap configured such that the functional substance is automatically mixed with water contained in the container by the engagement of the container and the cap body and thus the bottle cap is capable of preventing contamination and ensuring safety. Furthermore, the present invention is to provide the bottle cap easy for people of all ages to use. 

1. An additive-infusing bottle cap being configured with a thread portion provided on an inner surface of a body part of the bottle cap to be screwed with a thread provided in a neck of a container configured with an opening through which contents are discharged and introduced, the additive-infusing bottle cap comprising: a storage portion provided in a manner being inserted inside the body part and being movable while storing a certain amount of a functional substance therein; the functional substance provided as additives formed into any one of liquid and powder and containing minerals, vitamins, or fruit flavors, the functional substance being filled in a chamber of the storage portion; and a pressing portion provided in a space defined between the storage portion and the thread portion of the body part and functioning to press and tear the storage portion when engaging the bottle cap with the container.
 2. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the storage portion is provided with the chamber so as to store the functional substance therein, and the storage portion is configured with a cut line on a surface thereof, the cut line being selected from I shape, + shape, and O shape.
 3. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the storage portion is provided with the chamber so as to store the functional substance therein, and the storage portion is configured with a cut line on a surface thereof in an arc form and configured with a connecting portion that is not cut by the cut line.
 4. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the pressing portion is provided with a piercing pin configured to tear the storage portion and integrally configured with connecting members, and the connecting members are connected to an annular frame, wherein through-holes are defined between the connecting members so that the functional substance passes therethrough.
 5. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the pressing portion comprises: a piercing pin provided at a central portion thereof to tear the storage portion; and a pressing plate provided with through-holes through which the functional substance passes, the pressing plate being configured such that a central portion thereof is formed into an inverse cone shape and is elastically transformed into a cone shape when pressed.
 6. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 3, wherein the cut line is pressed by a heater, and is a broken line.
 7. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 5, the pressing portion is made of elastic material.
 8. An additive-infusing bottle cap including a thread portion disposed on an inner surface of a body part of the bottle cap to be screwed with a thread disposed in a neck of a container having an opening through which contents are discharged and introduced, the additive-infusing bottle cap comprising: a storage portion inserted inside the body part and being movable while storing a certain amount of a functional substance therein, wherein the functional substance contains minerals, vitamins, or fruit flavors and is filled in a chamber of the storage portion; and a cut line disposed in a space defined between the storage portion and the thread of the body part, wherein the cut line is broken when the bottle cap is engaged with the container.
 9. The additive-infusing bottle cap of claim 8, the storage portion has a shape of

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